Wednesday, September 19, 2012

I did tell myself that I could miss one blog post enough without feeling guilty. However, I'm almost at two day without posting, which deserves an explanation. Yes, we have an event pretty much every day, often two. But there's more.

We've picked up about a dozen events from Next Chapter. Some are public, but others are not. For example, we are now doing four school visits with authors. There are a lot of logistical issues in these events, mostly involving soliciting book orders from the students. I'm tired!

We finally booked the Magic Tree House event with Mary Pope Osborne and Natalie Pope Boyce for next Friday, September 28. We kept it at the same time of 4:30 pm that Next Chapter had, but our event is now free and open to the public. Folks who bought tickets to the Next Chapter event will get a copy of the 20th anniversary edition of Magic Treehouse #1: Dinosaurs Before Dark.

Fans of Osborne and Boyce know that wrist problems prevent them from signing stock, but each attendee will get a special stamp on their book. But the best thing is that you can get a picture with both authors. At big events, I wind up having to say "no posed photos" a lot; it's so great to be able to say "pose to your heart's content!"

The rest of the events are enough in advance that we'll announce them in our regular schedule. But another event we just added is happening this coming Saturday, September 22. It's a signing for Penny Marshall, author of the new memoir, My Mother was Nuts.

This is a bit odd to talk about, as the book is published by Amazon. You may have heard that a lot of independent bookstores are boycotting Amazon titles, even the self-published books facilitated by Create Space. We thought about this, but decided against it. For one thing, I am following David Schwartz's lead, who didn't boycott Sterling Publishing when it was bought by Barnes & Noble. It's hard to believe that B&N at one point was ready to buy Ingram, our largest wholesaler. That seems so long ago. Now they are the independent bookstore's best friend, though I did note that our organizaiton just went with Kobo as the partner of choice for ebooks, not Nook.

It's not that I am against boycotts. I eschew certain brands of consumer products, which shall remain nameless here, because I am not happy with the practices of the owners. But I think books are different. I believe the book is bigger than the publisher, or even the author. And one simply can't be a Milwaukeean and not support Penny Marshall. Heck, I lived a block from Knapp Street for twenty years. This is our heritage we're talking about and we have a Fonz statue to prove it.

The signing is part of Doors Open Milwaukee, a fantastic two-day event this coming Saturday, September 22 (and also Sunday), that allows all of us into buildings that are otherwise not open to the public. Historic Milwaukee, Inc. has done a great job making this one of the premiere "doors open" events in the country. I'm not sure, but I think the idea came from Toronto.

Penny Marshall's signing is at City Hall, 200 East Wells Street, in the first floor rotunda, at 4 pm on September 22. How could it really be anywhere else but the place that was the second shot of every Laverne and Shirley episode (after "shlemiel, shlemazel")? And did you ever wonder why two Milwaukee girls who were not Jewish were chanting Yiddish words? It certainly confused me.

We're hoping to get there around 3, after our event with Grant Petersen of Rivendell Bike Works and author of the new Just Ride. Our own Mel will be co-leading the event with Grant, and thanks to Nick for lending us the bicycle. But not the one that Shirley is riding.

1 comment:

"The book is bigger than the publisher." Well put. I think the only book I remember David Schwartz boycotting in his entire career was the David Irving Holocaust denial book. And I would hate to sort Penny Marshall into that pile!